Pan de Mallorca

RECIPE OVERVIEW

Pan de Mallorca are light, sweet bread rolls from Puerto Rico, popular for breakfast and throughout the day. They get their name from a similar bread found on the Spanish island of Majorca.

Preparation time:260 minutes

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Cooking time:18 minutes

Ingredients

Serves: 4 people

4tbspApricot Jamto serve

115gButtermelted, plus extra for brushing

70gCaster Sugar

0.5tbspDried Yeast

4largeEggsyolks only

120mlMilk

375gPlain Flour

1tspSalt

1tspVanilla Extract

120mlWatertepid

Method

Put the tepid water and yeast in a large mixing bowl, mix together and set aside. The yeast should dissolve and activate in about 5 minutes. Add the milk, melted butter, sugar, egg yolks, salt and vanilla, whisking lightly to combine.

The next step is best done with a dough hook on a food mixer, but you can do it by hand too. Add the flour and knead until it just comes together into a dough. If making by hand, mix with a wooden spoon to begin and then knead by hand. Add a little extra flour if it’s very sticky, but it should be quite ‘gloopy’ rather than dry.

Place a clean damp cloth over the dough and allow to rise in a warm place for about 2 hours, until the dough has doubled in volume. Punch the dough down and knead again for a couple of minutes. This is called knocking back and it will shrink in size. Refrigerate for 2 hours or overnight. If you’re stuck for time you can leave out the chilling step, but the chilling does makes the dough easier to handle.

Roll the dough out into a rectangle about 5mm thick. Using a little extra melted butter, brush the top and then make eight long strips of dough using a sharp knife. Each strip will be the individual bun that you make by twisting the strip into a circular shape, then slipping the end underneath the bun.

Put the individual buns on a baking tray lined with non-stick baking paper and leave to rise for about 45 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 170°C/gas mark 3.

Bake the buns in the oven for 12 to 18 minutes, until they are lightly browned. Leave to cool. Serve with apricot jam.